About Acorn
Acorn was formed in 1998 in order to focus on developing unrealized intellectual property in multiple markets. By diversifying focus among technology opportunities, Acorn's opportunity for success is much greater compared with concentrating on only one technology.
Co-founded by Dr. R. Stockton Gaines, a respected researcher and consultant to industry and venture capital firms, and Dr. Alvin Despain, a noted academic and technologist, the company was formed in anticipation, and now evidenced by the recent patent boom, of the importance of Intellectual Property.
Statistics regarding Intellectual Property
- The number of patents filed per year with the US PTO exceeds 150,000 and is becoming a worldwide phenomenon with almost 45% being generated outside the U.S.
- Several recent books have served to heighten awareness of the
importance of IP management and value extraction, for example:
- Rembrandts in the Attic: Unlocking the Hidden Value of Patents (1999 by Kevin G. Rivette, David Kline)
- Profiting from Intellectual Capital: Extracting Value from Innovation (1998 by Patrick H. Sullivan)
- A well known computer company has illustrated the power of focusing on IP value extraction by achieving over $1Bn in licensing revenues from their IP portfolio in 2000, up from $30m in 1990.
The Intellectual Property Challenge
- Individual inventors face the challenge of getting adequate resources, capital and skills to commercialize their inventions.
- Universities are not in the business of taking their developed IP beyond the research stage.
- Corporations are focused on the core business and core IP assets, and need assistance in extracting value from their non-core IP assets, or leveraging their core assets into different markets.
Acorn represents a new approach to extracting value from Intellectual Property for inventors, academia and industry. Today, Acorn Technologies has over 20 inventions under management.